


Be My Brother's Eyes

by TigerOfTheTundra



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Handplates, Loss, Partial Blindness, none depicted, reference to experiments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-05 00:05:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6681352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerOfTheTundra/pseuds/TigerOfTheTundra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on Sans' eye operation, and the aftermath therein</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It Begins

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Handplates](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/193249) by Zarla-s. 



> Daily life in the lab....

There would be a noise, or a not-noise, a sudden lack, that made Papyrus blink and rub his eye socket and look about. Sans himself would blink at the movement, then turned quickly to look at the door.

It was him, every time. He stood in the doorway, where the door beams usually were, with their unnoticeable hum. Both young skeletons stiffened their hold on each other, and Papyrus hunched his shoulders, curling around his brother. One of them would have to go.

He didn’t take them both anymore.

“ Subject 2.” And the daytime started, every day, like that. Sometimes still they did paper puzzles, or colorful puzzle games, which Papyrus thought he was getting much better at. Sometimes they had to do things, run from here to there, jump over that, climb this, use your magic. Other times… they didn’t. Papyrus didn’t think about it, as much as he could, by the end of the day. At the end, his favorite time, he and his brother were alone in the cell, curled around each other and content for a few moments before they fell asleep. Even after long, arduous days, Papyrus would still smile coming back to see his brother, or when his brother returned, and they’d hug the moment he left them alone. Some nights they’d talk a little, or try to play the silly games they’d made up. Usually they fell asleep quickly, exhausted and aching with fear, even on puzzle days. That had happened the night before, while Papyrus arm stung from the days testing, he just sat down next to Sans and curled up next to him, he wanted the day to be over already.

The next morning, he didn’t wake when the sound of the door beams disappeared. He only came back to consciousness when his brother stood, shuffling forward as Papyrus tried to blink the world into focus.

“BROTHER…?” he asked with a yawn, not sure why—Then he saw who stood in the doorway, waiting, impassive and impatient. Papyrus lowered his head, and Sans turned to look at him, his smile weak, a faint glow to his eyes, which Papyrus knew was a try to make him feel better and… His eyes glowed, readily; he watched Sans go, go for the day, or for the first part of the day, or…

Alone, Papyrus curled back up. He didn’t think he could sleep much, but boredom set in, and he dozed, jumping awake at every stray sound. He rubbed his eyes clear multiple times, as he stared at the doorway, only to find them blurry with tears again. He rubbed his arms too, and tried not to wonder, tried not to think about it.


	2. Paper Hopes and Paper Tests

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day passes

“Subject 2.” Papyrus jumped, dropping his pencil. He was supposed to be answering the test questions; he hadn’t—“Have you finished the test?”

“UM…” He hadn’t heard Gaster come to this side of the room. He’d hadn’t done… Guiltily, Papyrus covered the drawing on the bottom of the paper, but Gaster held his hand out. Papyrus relinquished the paper. He’d tried to finish the test at first this time, again, he really had, but… but he hadn’t seen his brother since yesterday and…

“… What is this?” Gaster had glanced over the other papers, but he was looking at the drawing. He sounded... no he seemed… Papyrus sunk a little more into the chair, but…

“I-IT’S… IT’S MY BROTHER, I…” He twisted his hands together in his lap, trying not to look, trying not to search for the sympathy that wouldn’t be there… “I JUST…” He couldn’t explain, and his voice gave out.

“Why…?” Gaster set the paper aside with a sigh, then silenced Papyrus' hesitant answer with a look. “Come with me.” 

“ARE WE GOING TO SEE MY BROTHER?” He hopped out of the chair, but Gaster didn’t say anything. “I… I WAS…” It was a silly request, and Papyrus dropped it before he could finish, soon he’d see Sans and he could tell him, yes, he’d get to tell him that today was okay, that they just did the paper tests. That Papyrus got to draw on the test, though not that he… he had no idea how to solve any of the puzzles… not even the ones he could get through all the way. Disappointment weighed heavier than the doctor’s magic hold on his soul, and he trudged even further behind than normal.

Gaster didn’t take him to his normal cell. It was the other one, and it was empty, without even his normal things inside. No critter made of pillow fluff, or that scrap of paper Sans hid in the corner. The one they folded funny, so it spun when they threw it into the air some nights. Papyrus stepped through the doorway slowly, looking around, and he startled when he heard the faint snap of the magic in the door reactivating. Gaster left shortly after. Maybe… maybe he just wanted to give Sans some space, to recover. Rubbing his arms, Papyrus walked about the room a little—he didn’t remember if he’d been in this one—before sitting by the doorway, watching. Listening. Hugging himself tight.

Hours passed before he heard anyone come near. Papyrus sat with his knees to his chest, face buried, when footsteps sounded. The steady tap—and a soft click of bone behind, it was his brother! He scrambled to his feet, they were almost here, he even stepped back from the doorway so Gaster would open it sooner and—

The footsteps stopped, and he could hear someone… breathing funny. Like little shuddery gasps that chilled him down to his soul, like… He couldn’t imagine Gaster making anything like that sound, but it couldn’t be, no, his brother would be okay, his brother was fine—

The door to a different cell activated. Papyrus swayed in place, why, why did he put Sans somewhere else, why…? He couldn’t hear anything, couldn’t see anything out there. It was so, so quiet. Papyrus almost grabbed onto the doorway beams for support, then grabbed the wall; he was shaking hard enough to hear the rattle of his bones. When Gaster was suddenly in front of his cell, he did jump.

“WHY—” The expression on the doctor’s face instantly silenced his question. He was… was… oh god, he was mad, he was, the tension of his stance and his, he was, what happened, what did he do wrong. Papyrus was sure he hadn’t done anything wrong, but the test, oh no, was he mad about the test, wasn’t he and now and now— 

But Gaster didn’t even look at him. He touched the pad and deactivated the doorway and… and would Papyrus get to see his brother now? Was he, was he going to see Sans? He almost asked, he felt the question against the back of his teeth, but he didn’t want to risk being scolded, or worse, being sent back into the room without getting to see Sans. So he held back, following close, craning to look around to the next cell, to see his brother as soon as he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaand you'll get to see what happens next chapter! Which is written, just... not going to be posted... yet... I will in a few days, I promise! And the story is four chapters long now, with a possible fifth, seeing how it pans out. So, y'know, it won't be just left hanging with no future resolution!
> 
> Papyrus just has a lot of feelings... Just let him keep the drawing, G. That's the least he deserves, after this latest of your terrible choices >:/


	3. What Did He Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans' perspective

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sans.

Something was off, as Sans stumbled after Gaster. The doctor had run tests when he woke up, but Sans barely noticed them. He hurt. That wasn’t it. His head pounded, his whole body shook and ached, but _that wasn’t it, oh god what did he do what did he—?_

They stood in front of the cell door. Sans had trouble breathing right. Gaster had to push his soul forward, to get him inside the room, the blank room that looked wrong, something was different it didn’t look right what was happening? The moment Sans heard him move along, heard the door activated, he slowly let himself drop to his knees. He dared to touch the bandage. It… it hurt, it hurt so much. He felt along the edge of his cheekbone, gingerly touched his eye socket, it… it was all there, where it was supposed to be. So what happened? It hurt. He covered his face and he and—oh god.

Sans took one hand away. Nothing changed. Nothing looked different, nothing—He slowly pulled his other hand away from his eye. He couldn’t see it, he couldn’t—He closed the unbandaged side’s eye, only to open it again immediately; the world had gone dark when he, when he… when he… Distantly he heard the click of his brother’s footsteps, the door, but, but he… Even as Pap got closer, he couldn’t, he couldn’t—he couldn’t let Pap see, he couldn’t let him know that—

Hands caught his face. His brother scowled, a silent concerned, command. He looked up, slowly; he didn’t want to face this, face his brother, face any of this, this—Papyrus’ eyes glowed. Sans, Sans glowed his eye in response, glowed his eye, oh god, just his eye, he could feel it. Feel the weak glow, feel his other eye, his blind eye blank and dark. He grabbed his head, covered it, covered himself. Papyrus looked horrified. He couldn’t even blame him, he was, he was…  
  
Papyrus caught his face in his hands again. He pulled Sans’ head forward, pressed their foreheads together. Sans could feel the warmth of magic from his brother… Strong, vibrant magic, brighter than anything, safer than anywhere… The tears stung unhealed microcracks around his eye socket. He didn’t care. He shuddered and leaned into his brother’s arms. He didn’t care. He just hung on to the warm magic around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This.... is basically the end of the first eye arc comic, really, it's just that scene, but from Sans' POV so...
> 
> Also I'm super sorry I didn't post until now; I had my sister's graduation this weekend and I'm still recovering, sleep-wise. Though I can't help but feel bad complaining about recovering from a weekend in California after editing this chapter...
> 
> Next chapter is written; I'll post it the end of the week. Just a short follow-up, really. I'm sorry if you thought there would be more plot than this


	4. Again

Papyrus woke with a start. He tried to open his eyes; he couldn’t see anything; he couldn’t open them, the room was dark, he—

“hmm, bro, bro wha—?” Sans shifted in his arms, then pulled him into a tired hug. “s’okay, s’okay, i’m here,” he murmured. He sounded so tired, so normal and tired and Sans-ish—Papyrus hugged him back, feeling the force of trying to glow his eyes behind the bandages…

The bandages. Cautiously, he reached a hand up to touch them. He’d… forgotten.

“oh.” Sans grew still. Had he forgotten, too? Papyrus smiled at him.

“IT’S JUST FOR A FEW DAYS. HE SAID SO,” he reminded his brother. Sans only sighed and laid his head back down, his breathing already slowing to sleep again. Just a few days, Papyrus repeated to himself. “BROTHER?”

“yeah?” he said, then, “yeah bro, i’m here, what is it?”

“OH, JUST… ARE THE LIGHTS ON YET?” Papyrus felt strange, not knowing whether it was morning yet or not.

“no. we can go back to sleep,” he said. Something touched Papyrus’ hand, and he flinched, but it was only Sans. Only his brother pulling the nervous hand down from tugging at the bandages, like Papyrus did for Sans just a short while ago. “c’mon. let’s get some rest.”

“O-OKAY…” Papyrus felt shaky with energy, but already Sans was drifting back to sleep. If he could, he’d close his eyes and join his brother, but his eyes were closed. They hurt, and they itched. He couldn’t rub them, though, because that would make them heal slower. H-he knew how to take care of healing injuries, he knew to rest and not scratch or rub at it, and…

He knew a lot of things… like that…

Holding his brother in his arms, Papyrus tried to go to sleep. He tried to count as high as he could go, to bore himself to sleep. He imagined out the quiet hopes in his head, the private ideas of him and Sans being cared for, of when… of when _he_ would answer their questions, teach them things, and…

But the ache in his ribs and the shaking feeling through his arms and legs wouldn’t let him for long, and… And he didn’t know if it was morning yet.

If he moved toward the doorway, to listen for the magic beams, he’d wake Sans again. If he woke Sans, he could, he could talk to him, but… Papyrus just hugged him a little tighter, resting his cheek on his brother’s head. They could sleep a little longer; Sans said so. It wasn’t morning yet. He’d just have to wait, wait through the night if he couldn’t sleep, he told himself. He’d just have to wait. It wasn’t morning yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this after the first three, when I realized I wanted... something more of a conclusion, but each chapter feels more like a drabble than a piece of a story. More like a piece of a life. 
> 
> Also, in the interim time between writing those first chapters, and deciding to post them, Zarla posted the second and third of the eye arc comics, and... well, this happened. Because these children haven't gone through enough, apparently... 
> 
> Just a few days, though, right?

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this a while back, but only now posting it, after today's update... Just the day to day of Sans and Papyrus' lives, in the lab. I have the next two chapters written, but I'm going to post them in a few days or so (just make sure I'm actually happy with them, not just tired enough to think they're good)
> 
> I never know how to reference Gaster in these stories... What would Papyrus and Sans refer to him as, in their own private thoughts? Would they call him by name, by title? An emphasized pronoun? For now, I'm mostly just dancing around actually referring to him, but I'll have to eventually... I can see Sans just thinking of him as _him_ , but Papyrus has so many big conflicting emotions and... 
> 
>  
> 
> ~~Just don't think about how often they sit waiting, hoping, trying not to think until their brother gets back~~


End file.
